Resident evil is the first, of a long film series of action-horror films. Released: 2002. Having reviewed, I wouldn’t recommend though.

Storyline

The story was well introduced, so the background could be clearly understood. Often, horror films neglect the setting, so this was positive. It didn’t however, go into any detail prior to weird and wonderful creatures appearing. This made the context of some lifeforms, impossible to comprehend. It meant, you couldn’t understand where some creatures had emerged from, or how they came into being. Some of the film was rendered tame, because of this.
The storyline involved multiple locations which was good, but this didn’t add much enjoyment overall.
The plot was a simple, yet clever, idea. One that should have lead to tense circumstances regularly. It could have been far better used however. The plot, whilst good, in my opinion for the significant film length, had to be epically supported by tension building effects such as strange sounds, changing lighting, unpredictable occurrences, and appropriately fearful responses. Long horror films do rely on such quality, which was sadly absent here.

Tension

At moments of attack, things should have been suspenseful. Creatures did allow tension to be created at a few sweet spots, but these were seldom regular. Special camera angles or effects would have helped increase tension. Music was barely used, and the infected creatures didn’t make noises effectively enough, to create a tense atmosphere. Lighting wasn’t varied enough, and injured struggles weren’t prevalent.
I wanted to believe character adrenaline, but I’m still not truly convinced they had any.

Characters

A wide variety of creatures and infected humans were encountered, and some facial expressions were effective. A lack of stress under the circumstances, actually made it unrealistic though. The character make-up and creature movements however, appeared sleek and interesting. Creature body forms seemed well considered and should have been intimidating. Characters seemed fairly well played, with a few stand outs, using facial expressions well to combat fairly unimaginative, camera angles.
There were some close-ups used effectively, albeit very rarely. Enemies weren’t unpredictable, and generally attacked as expected. Not helping the fear factor.

All settings were well lit, and shadows weren’t used. A lack of subtle suggestion then, didn’t put you on edge. Certain scenes were horrific and gory, yet didn’t elicit a believable horrified reaction, from peers or the viewer. Again, sound effects to accompany gore, just weren’t there !

Summary

Tension building effects such as strange sounds, varying lighting, unpredictable occurrences, and appropriately fearful responses were lacking. They couldn’t lift a variety of imaginative characters and creatures, beyond a fairly uninteresting entity.